The majority of today's oil filters is the spin-on variety which has a centrally embedded female threaded portion that complements a male threaded portion on the engine mounting plate, in a recognized manner. Installation and removal of the oil filter unit is accomplished by rotating the filter body in the clockwise and counter-clockwise direction, respectively. Most present day oil filter housings are also constructed with axially aligned grooves around the closed end of the body, for the purpose of facilitating hand installation and removal. Hand spinning of the oil filter unit is achieved by grasping the filter body with the fingers and turning with the hand.
In theory, the use of hand in all phases of oil filter change is possible. In practice, this method is virtually impossible. A large, oil free hand with great finger and hand strength is required for hand spinning. Great strength is needed, in particular, during removal when the filter housing often sticks to the engine mounting plate. Also the filter unit is often too large to be easily grasped by small hands. Furthermore, keeping the hands oil free during all phases of filter change is difficult. These are practical reasons why present day oil filters can not easily be mounted nor dismounted by hand.
To circumvent the above problems in hand spinning, filter wrenches of various types have been devised. In addition to wrenches, new oil filter housings with accompanying tools have likewise been proposed to solve these problems. In reference to U.S. Pat. Ser. Nos. 4,364,829; 3,722,691; 3,473,666 and 3,279,609, there exist numerous inventions in filter constructions to facilitate oil filter installation and removal. All of the above cited inventions however require the use of external tools in conjunction to the proposed filter body construction.
There are numerous limitations in the use of filter wrenches and other tools. The use of these tools recently has been complicated by the automotive industry designers installing the oil filters in either virtually inaccessible areas, or close tolerance locations. This is particularly true in the case of most front wheel drive vehicles manufactured both here and abroad. The use of the filter wrenches and tools, under these circumstances, is usually met with poor performance, and often times results in damaged filters. Even when filters are located in accessible locations, frequently a given tool can only be used on a selected few types of filters. Most multiple automobile owners are required to purchase multiple oil filter tools.
An attempt to solve the close tolerance oil filter change problem was devised in U.S. Pat. No. 4,416,776. This invention proposed using two strips of material counter wrapped around the filter cylinder body. By pulling the appropriate tape, the filter body will spin on and off. This approach is only feasible provided sufficient torque can be generated and ample room exists for pulling the tapes.
None of the references teach the new and novel use in combination of elements in the environment set forth hereinafter and defined as turning device and construction for oil filter. Neither do they provide the benefits and advantages associated therewith the following proposed embodiment. Whereas the previous invention all have limited applications, as will become obvious from the figures and detailed description below, the proposed invention will have broad applications. The hereinafter embodiment allows hand installation and removal of oil filters in all hand accessible situations, while requiring neither great finger and hand strength nor oil free hands.